001I am now going to turn the meeting over to Doctor Bracy. Over the superintendents report. Good evening, President Villon. Trustees, members of the community who are joining us online. And to our staff who were here today. We did not expect a big crowd, uh, given today's, uh, snow event and want to thank everyone for their patience, uh, in making a really tough call, uh, early this morning, uh, before the busses got rolling and, uh, Carmine and I spoke about 445, and we thought we were making the right call. And, um, you ask ten people, five will say we made the right call, and the other five will probably say, uh, later on in the day, we could have made a different call. But in the end, we always put our kids and staff, uh, and
002parents, um, safety at the forefront of our decisions. And so knowing we have a lot of walkers and our community is, uh, we want it to be a safe space for our kids to get to school and staff as well. And so, uh, we made that call, and we thank everyone for their patience. Uh, tonight, I'm going to begin. I'll close with some, um, a more brief Peekskill Pride. But I would like the opportunity to begin and, uh, discuss some of, uh, some behavioral data. You may recall there was an article, um, the first article that came out and it, uh, was based on the state comptroller's report, and it was, uh, statewide, uh, data that was, uh, released. And, um, the premise of the article is, you know, school districts that were, um, identified
003as having higher rates of certain types of, um, incidents, in particular, whether it's bullying or aggression and things of that nature. We were identified as one of three school districts, um, we then questioned the, the, the reporter on, um, on, uh, why we were identified because they were schools that were higher than we were. And, uh, immediately the article was removed, uh, from the website. And, uh, then there was a second article, uh, that, uh, more indicated, well, we have the behavioral issues, um, gone. And so, uh, what I'd like to do is take this opportunity to share our data that we have always kept in and share a little bit with you on the process in which data ends, uh, up at the state level. And each year, Jenise and I, uh, eldest Rebecca,
004we review our school level data, and we provide, uh, information to a portal, um, which then, um, is looked at by at the state level. Now, there are, um, certain behaviors that are identified. And it was certainly in the article, uh, from the state comptroller that, uh, there are three categories that must be in place for those types of behaviors to be identified in a school district, one of which is assault. And so very often, um, uh, two students may get into a physical altercation and uh, individual may say, uh, my child was assaulted or the student may say I was assaulted. Generally, it's a parent. And so I would like everybody to understand that at the state level with this reporting mechanism. And that's why you saw zeros on most districts reports, is that
005the state made a change a few years ago. And so from a general altercation scenario to, uh, a felony, um, uh, penal code assault is what is being monitored. So it has to be at a, uh, felony level. The child has to be ten years old or older. And the police have have had to be involved in that. And so with those three categories, uh, it's it's rare that you will see an assault in, in a school district because again, it is at that felony, uh, level. And so, um, so that was one of the indicators that that you saw, um, and people might have questions about that. So I just wanted to remind everyone about that. Uh, what I would like to do is share the opportunity. And, uh, trustees, it's on the, um,
006on your computers as well. And I'd like to share with you the information, um, on particular, uh, data points. And so that way I can bring that closer to me. So on the left hand side, uh, this is a three year analysis, uh, that, that we've conducted, and we always have this data, um, available to us. It is inputted, uh, generally by staff who input an incident. Uh, the administrator reviews the incident and finalizes it, and then we have access to it as a district level team. And so, um, what you see is three, three years of data, uh, on the left, blue is 20, 22, 23, uh, orange is 23, 24 and uh, gray is 2425, which was last school year. And on the left hand side, um, over here, you'll see this is
007the categories that the state, uh, identifies as intimidation, bullying and harassment. And so what you see there is that we have been, uh, in essence, um, at the same level, uh, here and one of the articles indicated, you know, where's our bullying data? And, and the purpose for that is that the state has on their website when you are uploading, uh, the information, uh, it it identifies as the dignity. Uh, act. And so, uh, that is a, that's a form and a process in which, um, a family member may request or a staff member may request that, uh, uh, an incident be reviewed by administration led by, uh, Doctor Bedi and Doctor Vilas Rodriguez. And so the information is reviewed, there's a high bar for that. And then, uh, it can be founded or unfounded
008in the cases in which, uh, were reported, those were unfounded based on the scenario. And so, uh, you know, very often we'll find situations in which, uh, will receive information that a child has been bullied. And what we, um, often will find is that it is, uh, conflict that they've had. Um, it might even be an altercation. Uh, but when we look at the state requirements for, uh, bullying or intimidation and harassment, they are very specific. That being said, we we do look at certain scenarios that might not reach that bar, but we would then identify them as intimidation, bullying, harassment. And so what you see here on the left is the, uh, over the last three years, these were not data related, but these were, um, deemed by our administrators that these incidents were,
009uh, bullying, intimidation or harassment. The next area and, you know, since since coming here, I've certainly spoken with our students and our parents in particular at the secondary level, uh, but also at the elementary level that, uh, we have to work on, uh, and this is a, uh, human skill. This is a life skill. Uh, we have to work on how we, uh, deal with conflict. That is something that we are going to deal with in the workplace, at the college level, um, in schools, in the community, in families. And so certainly, uh, understanding that we have to educate our children, we have to support them from the district level, from the home level, and from the community level, all of us working together to help our kids understand that, uh, when you raise your
010fist at another person, you are very often not solving that matter. In fact, you're often making it worse. And, um, very often, even as a high school principal, you know, we, you know, in a different community, we would talk about this and the parent, uh, very often would downplay and say, well, was just, you know, kids fighting. And I would share with them they're two years away from college. And we want to understand that, that that is not what happens in college. And you don't want this behavior to go, uh, to that level. So let's stop working on it. Now. We're at the last stage where we can work on that. And so what you see here is that our fighting has actually gone down. Uh, but you see the data numbers here, um, and
011this is at the top level is 400 incidents. Um, but at the fighting level, it's, uh, 89, 84 and it's gone down to 52. And so we've been spending quite a bit of time with mediation services, with conflict resolution. We have outside agencies that come into our, in particular our middle school, in the high school that work with our students. And this is a life skill. We've got to learn to deal with conflict, disagreements and, uh, but we have to do it in a way where we don't raise fist to each other. Uh, the next area is physical aggression. Now, this is a lower level of aggression. Um, so this is not, uh, an altercation is not a physical fight, but it can be, um, uh, grabbing each other can be pushing. These are things
012that, again, lead to very often, uh, it may start as a push. And we all know this. We were all young at one time. And, uh, you know, that, uh, push starts this way and then it ends up very often it can become an altercation, whether it's in community, at home or in school. And so there are high numbers you see here with physical aggression. They are pretty, uh, they, they went up, uh, two years ago and then they went down the following year. Uh, but that is certainly something that we continue to work with our staff, with our families and, and equally important with our students as well, uh, to learn to disagree again, but to keep our hands to ourselves. Very important that we work together as, as parents and school district together
013and as a community as well. And then the next area you see is, um, disruptive behavior. So these are scenarios in which the students are disrupting, uh, the classroom environment is happening in the school, and you can see a dramatic drop last year and the disruptions in classrooms. And I attribute that really to our staff, uh, teachers, um, who work with our students. They set standards for our students. Uh, students need rules and standards, uh, but they also work with them to help, uh, keep them on track. And then I also want to thank our families and parents who are working together and our students as well, who are rising to that occasion. So we're going to keep monitoring that. But we do see a dramatic decrease, uh, in disruptive behaviors where we are seeing,
014uh, an incremental increase year after year is what's called inappropriate behavior. This is more of a catch all, um, scenario in which it wasn't a fight, it wasn't physical aggression. These are inappropriate things that are happening. They shouldn't be happening in our classroom. Uh, or in hallways or, uh, cafeteria time. Recess time. And so these are categorized there. But certainly something that we are keeping an eye on and working with our, uh, students as well. Uh, because these things, uh, keep our students from being in classroom. They very often will go right back to the classroom environment. Um, but certainly want to keep our students focused on their education and building positive relationships. And then on the right, uh, there's a scenario, um, which is a safety issue and that is weapons. And so you
015see 17, 14 and 11, uh, over the last three years. And so this can, um, now again, at the um, state level, a weapon is defined as a felony level weapon. So that's why you're going to see a zero. That does not mean that we don't have or any school, um, have anything. Uh, it could be a box cutter. It could be a small knife. It could be a, um, a variety of things. And so we do work with our students. These numbers are, uh, what you see there. Um, we we do know that when things happen in the community, sometimes we do see that there are more students who, for their own personal protection, may be carrying something. And I remember being a young man in New York City and someone saying, you know,
016when you carry something, you you actually find yourself in more trouble than when you don't have it. And so that is something we certainly work with our families. Most often these are found in bags, um, that are not exposed to other students, but they are found during the search or, uh, they found, uh, in a bag or a student pulls out something and by mistake pulls out, uh, you know, uh, switchblade, we've had, um, uh, a razor. We've had students that work at Home Depot and kept it, uh, in their book bags or in their pocket. Didn't think about it. And so we we did find those. And so those show up here as well. But that is something that we continually work with our families and students with as well. The next question, uh,
017like us to, to um, discuss is and this is a three year trend analysis as well, the number of students with repeated incidents. And so what you see here is, um, on this side, we had 249 students that had one incident. And it's based on those graphs I shared. Um, and, uh, we'll go through the other, um, numbers as well. So then that drops from that 289, uh, that drops, sorry, 249. That drops down to 60, which is the number of different students who've had two incidents. And then it goes down to 31, then 17 for four incidents. Five incidences, nine um, six incidences is uh six and seven is 13. And then as you get towards the tail end, uh, there's 0 or 1 incident, um, uh, for it, for an individual. So what
018what you find him with this data chart tells us is that we have students that make, uh, a choice, and, uh, it's at a higher number, but then it dramatically drops. That means that when our teachers are talking with students, when our minister has a meeting with them, when the parents are discussing it with them, when they get home, uh, and the students are self-reflecting, they are not doing it again and then not having other incidents as well. And so that's a really important data point to show. And that's really speaks volumes about our kids. We all make mistakes. And it's it's about learning from those mistakes and that repeating them. And so um, and this represents 399 students, uh, in the district of over 40, 100 students. And that includes kids who come to
019the district and left and, uh, throughout the year. Um, so there's 399 out of, uh, over 40, 100 students. The next question we'd like to look at is, well, what's the percentage of students, uh, in the district who have had, uh, incidents in those areas? I explained before. And so generally, what you see at the highest level, um, over here, and that is, uh, inappropriate behavior, it's about 5% of our students. But when you look at intimidation, bullying and harassment, it is less than 1%. In fact, last year it was 0.24. And so and then when you go over to fighting because very often you might hear kids fight a lot, while in reality it is just over 1% of our students that are, uh, actually engaging in fighting. And when you look at physical
020aggression that is in the three and a 3.5% range of our students, that means 95, 96, 97% of our students are not engaging in these behaviors that I shared with you. And so very often we hear things or we we see a data point, and we think that that embodies all of our students. And the reality is that 90, uh, five plus percent of our students are not engaging in these behaviors. And so that means that it's a small number of students that we actually can work with. And that's why you see some of the data points going down. And that's again, uh, kudos to our staff and our parents and families and community who are all working together and to our students as well. Last. Thing I'd like to share is, uh. And I
021want to thank the board for the support and the financial resources to engage in these, um, supports that we provide, uh, each and every one of our schools have a clinician, including Uriah Hill, and we have, uh, uh, social worker full time at Uriah Hill and, uh, later, uh, the next presentation, you'll hear about another proposal, um, as well. But we have 27 therapeutic staff in our district, including six social workers, ten school counselors, and 11 school psychologists. And that is, uh, divided among six schools. So we have well invested in the social, emotional supports for our children. And again, I want to thank the board, uh, Ellen's races, department, uh, administrators for all that they have done, uh, to request these and and you again, as a board and the community for voting on
022our budget. Very important. And we often hear about that from our community as well, is are we investing in them in the mental health and social emotional needs of our students? We also have mental health and counseling agencies. We have just again, thank you to the board and Ellen's race we signed a few months ago, um, a partnership with Northwell, and that gives our kids psychiatric support immediately. And we are, uh, in the group of a very small number of districts, very wealthy districts that have access to this. And we were able to do that for our students. Um, as you know, psychiatric support is very difficult to get and is even more difficult to get it immediately. And so our kids have access to that, a center, uh, down near the Bedford area. And
023they also provide transportation, uh, for the, uh, student as well. Then we have therapeutic crisis intervention, uh, uh, services in our schools. And these are trained teachers. We began with Cornell University, uh, in this training. And we have now trained staff members who are trainers, uh, of our staff. And each year we put on support, um, training classes for our staff, and we recertify our staff as well. In this we have positive behavior intervention, supports PBIs. So our kids come home and they talk about being recognized at our PBIs assemblies. And again, trying to get those pro-social attendance and other, uh, positive things happening in our schools because we don't always want to focus on negativity. We want to focus on the positivity as well. Uh, Doctor Holloman and the team, our social work team
024and our agencies that are at the Family Resource Center spend, uh, tremendous amount of time working with families, supporting them, um, as well. And we also, uh, wrote for a grant, uh, the recover grant and received $2.2 million. We're at the end of that, uh, grant cycle began in 23, 24. Uh, but that provided us with mental health supports and staff in our schools. And, uh, we are looking at ways to keeping these initiatives going in our district. Then we'll be presenting that as we present our proposals, uh, moving forward. And then lastly, I'll just share that we have, um, uh, four agency partners, JC's long term partner, Andrus, long term partner, providing clinical staff in our schools, uh, for counseling and supports for our students. They connect with families. And then, uh, very often
025they, the students and the families become part of the agency to get family support as well. We have mediation services at the middle, um, full time at the high school and support the middle school as well. And then we have um, student Assistance services and the guidance center, all of which are providing, uh, clinical support in our schools. Very important for us. And this is a joint effort. Some of it cost us district funds and others, uh, initiatives do not cost us any funding. We just need to provide them with the space, uh, in our school and dedicated, uh, staff members and opportunities for them to work with our students. So, again, I want to thank the board, um, our administrative team, all of our staff, you see the data where we're making growth and
026those areas that we continue need to work on. Uh, but again, I'll always say that, uh, it begins in the home. Uh, parents have a very important role in this, and we work with them. Then students move through the community. And it's important that we work together as community partners with our faith based organizations or the community agencies as well. And then our, uh, staff in our school environment, and we're all part of that Pi. And when we all work together, our kids do better. Um, and so, again, thank you to the board and so important for me to share this information out publicly. And we'll continue to do so. Uh, with that, I will go into just a few slides on, uh, where we are as a school community. Um, so March, uh, kicks
027off Women's History Month and Irish Heritage Month. At the next Saturday, Academy will be, uh, marching in the annual Irish parade. One of our former athletic directors and physical, uh, physical education teachers will be the, uh, I forgot the name of the the grand marshal, grand marshal of the parade. And so we're excited. Mr. Panzer arrow will be there, and so we will be there as well. We're hoping for a nice weather. Uh, but we also want to recognize all of the women in our school community and our nation, uh, who have uplifted our country, uh, local community and our schools is. Well, and so we'll be celebrating them throughout the month. And Doctor Daniels will be providing an update at our next, uh, board meeting. Uriah Hill students, uh, we are closing out. Uh,
028but we don't end the celebration. We don't end the history, um, uh, throughout the year. But we are closing out the National Black History Month and Uriah Hill students, uh, performed for for their peers and staff members. They did a great job. And so, uh, certainly we'll continue to talk about that. And Doctor Daniels will certainly continue to highlight that, uh, Woodside also had their concert as well and want to thank Miss Woodley and the music teachers and all the, uh, children and staff who are part of that. At Oak Side, students showcase Black History Month displays. So they did research. They created um, uh, artifacts and had them on display. And so I want to thank again all of our staff and families for being part of that. At Hillcrest Elementary School. They had
029a gallery walk. And you see, now it's, uh, extending now with writing initiatives and research, uh, that has been done. And so they always do a wonderful job for Black History Month, Latino History Month. And and certainly they'll be continuing their work on celebrating all cultures in our school. Our middle school puts out displays, uh, in the school environment just to make sure that, uh, all the students are, uh, recognizing black history, but also the contributions of their students and the families and community members at large. And then, uh, at the high school, they do many different activities. In fact, we have courses, uh, a dedicated to the, uh, black history, diaspora, Latino history and other cultures as well. Um, they put on a performance with Woodside Elementary and high school dancers in a creative
030dance opportunity, amongst many other things that they have done. Um, uh, Principal and Doctor Daniels, uh, went to an event led by sun River health and Will Frieda morrell and his team on Saturday at the center, uh, recognizing black history across the river and, uh, all that that, uh, means for us as a local community. And so, again, thank you to all of our staff for leading those efforts and, uh, shifting to, uh, the music talents of our students, I want to recognize seven of our high school students who participated in the Eastern Division, uh, Honor choir. Uh, I do want to just share a little bit more about that that I had to write about, and that is that these Peekskill students were chosen from more than 2000 applicants across 11 northeastern states. This
031highly competitive festival brings together 800 of the most accomplished high school singers in the region for an intensive, multi-day musical experience. So let's give them a round of applause. You see them there, will recognize them in our Friday letter and very excited about this. And this was that in Providence, Rhode Island. So they did a multi-state, uh, trip as well. And thank you to our teacher there on the right who was part of the initiative and went with them, um, as well. Uh, Bridget Holman is going to, uh, reschedule. And so the new date is March 12th, 630 to 8, uh, £0.30 m. It'll be at the Family Resource Center. And it is a black history, uh, event honoring our ancestors. So certain individuals will be, uh, recognized. But it's a family event. Our students,
032uh, engage in performances, and so hope you can make it out, um, again. Uh, that is on Thursday, March 12th, which is next week. Uh, the middle school, uh, the SpongeBob musical. I know a lot of, uh, families and kids are excited about, uh, attending that again. That is coming up this weekend, March 6th and seventh, uh, 7 p.m. show Friday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. show on Saturday. Let's give our, uh, theatrical group a big round of applause and recognize them, uh, for all that they would do. Our special education PTO will have an advocate, a self-advocacy event, uh, the 18th of March, 6 to 7 p.m. at the Family Resource Center. And so they are always looking out for families to come and learn how to be advocates for their children and for
033themselves. And then, uh, lastly, the middle school is having career Day on March 19th, uh, coming up, and they are looking for, uh, individuals to come out and and display their careers. I just heard, uh, you'll be there. Yes. Mr. Lewis is always there, uh, representing the administrative team. And so we have the fire police, we have, uh, doctors who are there, universities, unions, trades are there. And so, uh, a big plethora of individuals, but they are looking for, um, and we actually had parents, uh, speak about their, um, their careers as well. So we're looking for volunteers. If anyone is interested, please reach out to, uh, the middle school, and, uh, we'll get them set up. And that is Miss Mendoza. That concludes, uh, Peekskill Pride and our data presentation superintendents update. And with
034that, um, we have two presentations for you as a board. Uh, the first one is, uh, certainly important. Both of them are extremely important. And making sure that we have the technology, uh, we need in our schools to support the infrastructure, but also that we have safe, uh, technology practices in our, uh. District and Denise Reed will be presenting on technology. And then we have Carmine Christie, who's going to present on the budget for the maintenance and operations team. I do want to give them a big round of applause. This has been a difficult winter and you and your team have been amazing. So thank you for all the work that you and your staff have done. And, uh, who will be up first? We will have. All right. Janice is up first. Let's give
035Janice a round of applause. Good evening. Thank you, Doctor Mauricio, from the president for Land and trustees for allowing me to present on the educational technology budget for 2026, 2027 school year. Of course, just with all of our programs in the district, we support the Peekskill Promise. All tiers. All of the tenants of the Peekskill Promise. Each technology plan that we write, we come up with a vision. And this is the technology vision for Peekskill. Our vision is to integrate technology as we educate and empower all members of the Peekskill City School District community to strive for excellence as long life learners who embrace diversity and are contributing members of a global society. As I said, we have to write a technology plan. Um, we do it, of course, to help us guide. Guide us
036as we are moving ahead with technology. And it is a requirement by New York State. And we have. We surveyed students, parents and staff in December to January, and we use that information to come up with a draft that we are going to share with the superintendent and the, um, cabinet. Once that has been approved by the superintendent and the cabinet, it is sent to Lyriq, which is our Lower Hudson Hudson Regional Information Center, and they review it to make sure all the components that are required for New York State are included. New York State has approved all rigs to approve school district. The draft of the school district. And then it is sent to New York State for them to do a final approval by June 30th. So the technology budget supports all the
037technology functions in the district. And the first function I'm going to go over is the instructional software. The instructional software is the software that's used by students and staff to provide the students with, um, integration with their academics. What the technology department does is support making sure that the tools are working and are integrated in our network, as well as provide training for the staff. And we monitor the usage of that software to see if it is meeting our, um, return on investment, making sure that we are using it with fidelity and that it is supporting our students learning non instructional software, things like our website and our management systems, as well as our firewalls to make sure we are keeping our students safe. We also have the user devices and peripherals. As you're aware
038we are 1 to 1 Chromebook district. We also have Promethean boards in every classroom. We provide teachers with document cameras and whatever, whatever other technology is needed to support learning in classrooms where the Chromebooks do not have enough, um, power to support. We provide laptops. So like our AP Computer science, they have laptops. Our science research students have laptops. So we do also have some laptops in the district, as well as some iPads that are provided for special needs students, as well as for our digital arts classes. Data privacy is quite important. Um, for everyone, not even in just in the school district. We are getting spam and emails at home where people are trying to take our information. We also have that happening in the school district, where we get emails that are trying
039to take our student to information as well as our information. So we make sure that in addition to what we are providing to the staff, which is training and safeguards, we also make sure that any software that we are bringing into the district is letting us know that they are protecting our data, and we provide the least amount of data that we have to provide to those companies. Cybersecurity falls right into our data privacy. We also want to make sure that we have protocols to make sure our data is not breached. That includes firewalls as well as, um, other security software. We conduct cybersecurity training, as I said, with both the staff, um, and the students to make sure, because believe it or not, although we do not let outside emails come into our students,
040we did have a student that got a text message on their personal device, and they provided their school information. And then we had to, um, we had to, um, mitigate that issue. So it is quite important that we also inform the students about cybersecurity. Data management is also some function of the technology department. We have to provide state reporting to the state. And so one of our staff members is the person that uploads that information. We also provide data for the superintendent and, um, other administrators through various means, pulling it from different types of software, as well as our Tableau within our information management system. Tableau is a data dashboard that we use within the district, and we develop other reporting tools so that teachers and staff are able to see where their students are
041instructional and make the changes that are necessary when seeing that information. Our network infrastructure, we make sure that we're providing all of the the avenues to get the data throughout the district. Telecommunications is our phone systems as well as internet, and the dist and uh department also manages all of that. Of course, end user support is important. We have a help desk that all staff can put information into to let us know that they need additional, um, help with whether their device isn't working or their their account is not working. We create user guides so that, uh, the staff knows what to do when they come up with common issues. We do have tech help at Peekskill Schools for parents when they have questions about technology, and we provide training for parents at the Family
042Resource Center and, um, for students in the classrooms and professional development for staff. Of course, we, uh, it doesn't make sense if you have a new software and you don't know how to use it. So we make sure we provide professional learning for all staff, continuous and professional learning. We have an instructional technology coach who goes into the school and supports the staff as well. And here is the technology department. Um, we have, as I said, an instructional technology coach. We also have technology teaching assistants that support parents and students. And we have our network specialists, as well as our network engineers that fix our devices and monitor our network. As I said, we are required to do state reporting. So we have a data department that provides state reporting as well as data to
043the community. So we have a database specialist that focuses on Infinite campus. Our instructional systems coach does our state reporting and our instructional technology coach provides support with data as well. We have an Office of secretary in our office who helps to manage the office. So in 2526 this year we developed and uh, we are developing and will be submitting the district Technology plan for 2026 to 2029. We have replaced all the computers that Uriah Hill and Peekskill Middle School. And with doing that, we have moved to Windows 11 as Windows 10 is being phased out. We have added additional additional Promethean boards where they were needed. Um, infrastructure upgrades were replacing the core network and switches at oak side and wood side, and we installed wireless access points at Oak site. We um, the
044the wireless access points we have are getting and becoming end of life. So we need to replace wireless access points, um, with the new wireless access points. They provide more security as well as more access. Once we originally had, you had to have one in every single classroom because you could only manage 30 computers. These access points can manage up to 90 computers. Um, cyber security, as I said, we, uh, is a major and, uh, major function of the, uh, department. We implemented MFA for all staff this year. We also completed a cyber security audit, which is the National Institute of Standards of Technology. And, um, we are addressing those recommendations. We expanded our firewall web filtering to block additional high risk and non instructional websites. We supported the migration to our new district website
045and communications system which is Parent square. We support but we are supporting computer based testing that is added at Oak Side Elementary School third grade. We've done computer based testing for all the other grades, so this is a new grade. New York State has required that this year we must test our third graders on the computers. And we have also expanded our dashboards on Infinite Campus for easier access for data. In 2026 to 2027, we will continue our infrastructure upgrades with, um, upgrades to the switches and district office, high school, and family resource center. We have a five year technology, um, upgrade system. Um, plan. So our technology plan includes network upgrades as well as computer upgrades and Chromebook upgrades. So we are also, as I said, installing new wireless access points in various places.
046But for 2627 it will be at the high school. And we are addressing the recommendations of the um audit as well as expanding the use of parents. We have community tool, um, communication tools, and we will be contributing to the development of AI guidelines and policies. The district will be putting together a committee, and with that committee will be coming up with guidelines and policies. The computer replacement will be in Woodside High School and administration building in 2627. And we will, of course, replace our outdated Chromebooks. And this is the budget to support all of that. So, um, last year's budget was about 3,400,000. The budget that I'm proposing for 2627 is about 3,500,000. And, um, that's about a $97,000 increase, which is a 2.8% increase. Um, the major increase is, uh, other professional services.
047That is a 19.6, um, percent increase. And that is mostly because of, uh, our cybersecurity increases that we've had to add, um, various, um, safeguards according to the, um, audit. And then we have, uh, the lease. It's not really the lease going down. It's that one year has fallen off the lease. So that's why the decrease in the lease. The increase in, um, general supplies, uh, as everybody supplies and costs are going up because of various things that are happening in the economy. That is why are there's an increase there. Um, the computer programs, we had a lot of computer programs that were in grants. And so because those computer programs have now been moved to the general fund, there's a major increase there. But as I said, the overall increase of the budget, uh,
048the budget proposed is 2.8%. And the breakdown of the, of the budget. Um, as you see, uh, both these is a major southern Westchester Boces is a major part of, um, uh, our budget because, uh, because of the, um, we put most of our software and equipment orders through there because we get aid the following year. Um, we also PNW, Boces is the same. We do get aid there, and that is 10% of the budget. The rest of the budget is pretty much spread out evenly, except for, uh, of course there are some things that are very small percentages. And that is my budget presentation. If you have any questions, please feel free to guess. Thank you. I was just curious. Like the computer programs, is there anything new or are you talking about like
049windows kind of programs or windows like, as I said, as we upgrade, we're moving to Windows 11 because Windows 10 is being phased out. That's the that's as far as on the network side. Um, as far as, uh, computer actual software programs, we haven't done any really new ones. Um, we have decreased some that we saw usage was not either not we weren't having a return on investment or was not, um, really meeting our needs. So what was grant funded that's being moved over? Um, we have, uh, passport for good. Was grant funded? Um, uh, if you do remember that, uh, just. Yeah, there were several that were grant funded. I can give you, um, at a later date, the exact ones that were moved. Yes. Lexia was grant funded is now in my. Yes.
050Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So if we go back to the, the, uh, budget slide, I just want to make sure I'm reading this right. When we talk about general supplies, this is a negative, right? -12.8. Um, 18% decrease. And. Yes. Oh, very. Yeah. All right. Yeah. That was it. Thank you. Mhm. I am sorry I took it so well. Um, I left the program and we have called security. Yes. Um, can you tell me briefly? It was there an increase from. I know last year was our first year and we did it again this year. Was there increase of, um, participants? Yes, we did have, um, I can give you the. I don't have it off the top of my head. I can give you the numbers of, um, increase. But we did have increase of
051parents purchasing, um, insurance, and it was that was quite helpful. Um, it really is important. And I'll say it publicly now that parents purchased the insurance before the device is broken, because just like any other insurance company, the insurance company will check if the device has not been used and then the insurance is purchased. And so we have had some insurance denials, but majority of the time it has worked out where they'll replace the device right away. And it's a great value, uh, for for it? Yes. But only 10% of what the cost would be. Yes, yes. The, uh, the insurance has gone up a little. It was 20 this year. It was $29 for the whole year. And yes, in in a Chromebook replacement can be up to $300. Yes. So I'm sorry. All
052of our heart has all of our computer hardware purchased or leased. Majority of it is purchased. Do we do? We leased some of it through Boces, but majority of it was purchased. Okay. Do you see any benefits from the purchase versus lease side? Um, the reason that we've gone to purchasing what we were finding when we were leasing is that we didn't have as much control of what we were purchasing. The companies tended to tell us what to get. Okay. Um, don't we standardize the equipment? Yes we do. We standardize. And that's that's the when you when you present to the company, sometimes they might say, well, they think that a different device is cheaper or, or more affordable and, but like as you said, it's not the standard of what we're using in the
053district. Okay. I see. Thank you. Yeah. So, Janice, I just want to say, uh, thank you for everything that you do for the district. Uh, a lot of things that you do, uh, kind of goes unnoticed because it's in back of of everything else that happens. But, you know, in a district. So, uh, I know you don't like a lot of praise and so forth, and I know you're very quiet, but I just want to say, uh, your, um, your your work does not go unnoticed. And so just just thank you from me being as a parent, but also as a school board member, uh, for everything that you and your team do on a day to day basis. So thank you. Thank you very much. And thank the board and the superintendent for always
054supporting us. And I love those, uh, Chromebook cases. Yeah, they're just lifesavers. Uh, but keep it, uh, in their hard shell. Yeah, yeah. So a hard shell. Yeah. Thank you. That was a great choice. Thank you. And thank you. Um, I had a couple of questions. Yeah, I noticed. I mean, this is not the budget for personnel, but I just want to ask, from your perspective, if you feel like your department is properly staffed. Because I can only imagine when I hear the term helpdesk for parents and teachers and students. That's a lot of people. Yeah. Yes. Um. Cynthia, don't shoot me. Um, I ask the question. We definitely could use another technician. Um, mostly because of the cyber security, um, piece. My network engineer. He's stretched pretty thin. However, you know, we have to
055be realistic also, because that's quite another staff member is quite, uh, a hefty budget item. Sure. Um, and I would say the security of our students, um, and our staff when it comes to technology and just, you know, access in that way is of the utmost importance. So I think we should take that into consideration. Um, I don't if this necessarily falls to. So it's not an appropriate question to answer. Don't. But I'm just curious about like the plan for outages. Right. So our is do we have a plan as a district for when Google goes offline for whatever reason, like our teachers ready and prepared to like back it up? Or if I don't know, the the the tech that supports Promethean board collapses. Yeah. It's, uh, that's a good question. Um, of course,
056the academic piece is more, um, the assistant swoops, however we do with, um, lyric with Boces, we do have a redundancy. So if the internet from one trunk of Verizon goes down, we they do have a redundant line that they will switches to. So and um, within the district we also have redundant um networks. Okay. Thank you. Last question. Um, in thinking about the programs that have moved from grant funded to now, um, just general operating budget, was there an audit done to check for, you know, overlap, just to make sure, you know, that we're being really clear about the use of those programs and we're not being duplicative. Yes. I mean, as we're doing the software part of my budget, I do meet with the directors, um, and the assistant superintendents, and we do
057talk about that. As, um, Doctor Bedi said, we did get not get rid of, but we did not renew some softwares. That's an excellent question. One of the things that we are going to work towards. And now we're with Parent Square, which has a feature in which teachers can communicate directly with parents. Right now we use um dojo, class dojo and and remind reminds somewhat at the secondary level, the secondary uses more Google um direct um communication. But um, class dojo, to your point, it's going to be a duplication of what we have. And what we don't want is parents to say, uh, well, my son uses, uh, Class dojo as a teacher. And then over here, they're using the parents. Where? So we're going to be merging towards the system that we had. And,
058uh, right after Covid, lots of apps came out. And so, yeah, Ginny's had to really, uh, streamline and make sure that we were, um, not overwhelming, uh, kids and families as well. And so that's something we'll work on. Yes, with Laura Belfiore. Well, thank you for the report. But also, um, there's a lot of things you do that we don't get to see when we do these reports. So you're very involved with our robotics, and I'm sure lots of people would love to hear a little bit of that side of what technology does. Like this is important. Making the decisions financially is absolutely what we should be doing. But, um, I think everyone would like to cheer you on a little bit more with some of the more fun stuff. So if you ever want
059to come back and do a report just on the things that make your job amazing and things you can bring our students or you do bring our students, we would love that as well. But thank you for what you do to keep us safe in that. That backroom stuff that we don't actually know is going on, because I know that that's essential. But some of the fun stuff is also really exciting. So I know we got to see there's some pictures here of like the, um, the VR goggles and some of the, the fact that we have Promethean boards in every classroom and we really push for that kind of thing. Those are really exciting things about technology that a lot of people don't necessarily think about or know about our schools. So yeah, kudos
060to your department and for like making sure that that happens. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you again, miss Reed, for all that you do. And she also gives a of her personal time to take our kids. Uh, with Carla the Drini um, to out of state and also out of the area uh competitions for the robotics team. So thank you for bringing that up. Uh, President Valon. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yes. And when I do, snow calls and I call her at 5 a.m., she's usually on a treadmill. Um, so I don't know when she leaves, but she is. Uh, yes. She reminds us, um, being healthy as well. And next up is call my, uh, done an excellent job. Um, this year, obviously, with the snow scenarios that we have, uh, been addressing. But,
061uh, more importantly or equally important, um, is really all the capital work that we have been doing, uh, in our eight years. We've done. And thank you, Boyd. Tremendous work to to, uh, improve our spaces, uh, create state of the art, um, opportunities for our students and renovate and beautify our spaces for our kids. And that work continues. And so, uh, excited to hear your presentation, which is not a capital presentation, but is a, um, your department's presentation. But it all kind of goes again, a little bit and all goes together. Yes. So excited to hear about that. So, uh, first off, thank you very much, board of Education, Doctor Mauricio and Cabinet for letting me present my operations and maintenance budget for 2627 school year. Um, the way we've always performed and put together
062our budget within the facilities department, operations and maintenance is we ensure that we are in line with the Peekskill promise. So that's the way we start our, um, budgetary process. And that's the way we ended up in the general fund and the way we, um, envision our capital work as we go forward. I'm going to start off with just a brief overview of some of the work that was done this summer. So the worked out I'm going to show you in the beginning. Here is the work that's done through our general fund. So we do a lot of projects. I bring this up every year, but we do a lot of projects that we combine with in district staff, and we also utilize contracted service through the general fund. So what you're looking at here
063is the middle school library slash steam. We we did this over about a 2 to 3 year um goal is what we started with. A lot of the items in here. The expense was the equipment and the furniture. But what we did in here was we replaced the floors. Um, we did an LVP floor on the steam side. We replaced the carpet, we repainted the entire area. And along with the EPC, now some of the areas are really getting spruced up now too, because now we're getting new lighting in these areas too, which is really nice. So the first the top left is the um, additional. It's not it's an additional classroom for steam, but it's a shared space. So we just put a curtain that we can open up. So if we need the
064larger space, they can share it. Um, we redid the library side completely. We're, uh, we actually reused a lot of furniture there too. So the pos the point of sale. We redid that whole station there, came out really nice, and we did it again through general funds, so it wasn't very impactful, um, cost to the district. And by using in-house staff to do a lot of the work, it really gets us, uh, a real bang for our buck this year. I know it's not exciting to a lot of people, but renovations of bathrooms to, um, directors of facilities is very exciting because these are probably some of the most expensive things you will renovate within a school building. So here these are just two examples. So what we started doing is at Hillcrest. We renovated
065two large bathrooms and three smaller bathrooms. We were able to do epoxy floors. Um, through a contract, our staff replaced all the fixtures. We were able to reuse the stalls. We replaced the ceiling and the lighting. We were able to do five bathrooms for roughly $30,000, which again by utilizing in-house staff and having the epoxy floors done, it saves a lot of money. So this is the direction we're going to go. And with the capital work at the high school and stuff, this is the types of bathrooms. This is the type of renovations we are doing through capital also. Yeah, I'll send that up. The good thing about that. I know, uh, what we're looking at here is, um, some simple renovations, but some, again, some things that were very cost saving. So the two
066slides on the left, we did a quick renovation beautification in the guidance suite at the, uh, high school. We added an additional office where there was a little alcove, and we took down the we eliminated the dentist office. Look, that was in there. There was the half wall. There was the large wall in the back where the copier was hidden. It's much more welcoming now. It's wide open. We redid the floors. So again, this is a space that was both in-house and, uh, contracted service. The top right was 100% in district. We needed to find some more space at Oak Side for our special services. So we were able to take a classroom and convert it into a small suite, which gives us three spaces. If you look is also this is one space. And
067then you see the two doors here. So these are the two spaces. So it gives them the opportunity for um small group and individual uh, student um meetings. This is another one that not many people are as excited as me, but we were able to redo our boiler plant at Hillcrest. We did this over a two year plan last year. We did one boiler, this year we did the second. Um, we also were able to do the, um, condensation return lines throughout the entire building. So Hillcrest now has a brand new boiler plant, um, two new boilers. And this was a huge cost savings. I've told some other directors what we did here, and they didn't believe that we were able to do this at the cost. We did. Um, we have some amazing staff
068that will step right in, do some of the smaller stuff. But when you're doing work like this, it's all the labor rate that adds up. So the little things where it comes to even just putting the sheathing on the boiler, they're charging you hourly might be three guys for two days or a day to do that work. So you're talking a few thousand dollars to do that work. So we'll weigh it off and we'll take on some of the work. And we're able to complete, uh, Hillcrest boiler plant at a very good cost. Another fun stuff. We got a numbers. Um. My budget. I'm sorry. Uh, I should have went before Jenny's. My numbers are not as pretty as Jenny's is. Um, our custodial, um, is contractual. So those are the salary increases. Um, there's
069not much we can do there, obviously, but, um, as you're all aware, with just looking at the work we've done, looking at what we do for snow, removal of the buildings, um, we know our staff is doing a great job and really working hard for us. Some of the other big items, um, equipment, buying a vehicle nowadays, a replacement. You're seeing that everywhere you go. Um, what we were buying prior to Covid, for roughly 38 to 40, we're now paying 60 or more for that's that's how much vehicles have gone up. And that is through state contracted pricing. So even those are tough supplies. Um, we we did okay in this area and supplies were a little bit higher on the maintenance side. Um, most of the supplies on the operations side are within Boces
070contracts, Ed data. So those numbers hold pretty steady. But we did see a slight increase across the board, some of the areas where we always see an increase. But due to the energy performance contracts, we're holding our utilities down to a pretty low number. Everybody knows what electric is. Right now you're at more than 30, 40, 50% sometimes right now. They did approve a rate hike which is coming through Con ed with Napa for us. But with the anticipation of our solar being up and running next year, um, uh, late fall, we'll be able to we should we will see a savings. I'm just not sure of that number right now. So I'm not comfortable flat lining or anything at this point. So this is where we're going to be right now. Um, gas and
071oil. We've been doing really well. We did a huge increase last year based on what we were anticipating when when we do our investigative work, the numbers seemed a lot higher on the gas side, but those numbers kind of flatlined. So the budget increase we did last year has kind of kept us stable. For this year coming. So the overall, um, increase for the, uh, operations side is a 4.54% increase, uh, with a total budget number of 4,572,000. Uh, custodial staffing is remaining the same, um, from where we were last year. Um, I do put the numbers up there. They're based on square footage for roughly what each custodian is responsible for. The numbers are shifted a little bit based on what a head or senior custodian does. These are cleaning square footage numbers, so
072they are fluctuated a little bit based on what a head or senior. They're not cleaning all day long. They're inspecting. They're doing a lot of other things also. Um, but our staff, we are good. Number wise, I think we're pretty solid. I don't I don't see any need for any change here. Um, we've done a lot of work over the past few years with introducing cleaners into our contract with CSA, which brought the initial starting salary down a lot more. And we're able to we're able to get rid of the part time workers, which were very difficult to keep. The part timers were coming and going very quickly. We found that hiring cleaners full time, that they're staying, and we're doing a lot better with them. Thank you to Jamaal and Cynthia for that work
073that that's been really helpful. Uh, this is the maintenance, uh, budget to budget again. Maintenance salaries. Uh, that's contractual. And again, we've seen the tens of thousands, if not reaching into 100 thousands, that they're saving us with some of our own work that we're doing. And that's not even including the service work that we're doing internally. Um, at this point, we really don't do any Hvac service outside. We only use an outside, uh, service company if we're really in a bind. Otherwise, we're doing all of that work in-house. All of our service for plumbing isn't done in-house or electrical or carpentry. So we do a lot of in-house work. And I will say talking to other districts, they're surprised at what we do internally with our staff. So, you know, kudos to our guys. They
074do a great job. Again the numbers here. Equipment is same thing. Yeah. Equipment's going to be where it is just based on the current, uh, world we're living in. Supplies. That number is a lot of it, believe it or not, is we're finding that just lumber alone when we're doing our general fund projects that, you know, we typically would budget around 12,015 thousand and lumber, we doubled that number the last two years in a row just for the cost of ceiling tiles. Track all of that. Those items that you wouldn't think of, they've come up substantially in price. Um, the only other number that it uh, and actually we're pretty good across the board down there. So the total increase is a 5.35%. Um, the total budget number for the maintenance is 2,065,000. Uh, same.
075We're not. No change is necessary here. We have four mechanic two. So that's our electrician, plumber, Hvac and carpentry. And then we have two mechanic ones. We have, um, someone who we have as a lead man for our grounds department. And then we have a do all type person where we're doing doors and hardware and whatever other needs are needed. And what basically what we did, uh, was we turned one of our laborers into a mechanic one. We've been able to give them a lot more work overtime, and it's worked out great. We have a really strong crew here that does a lot of work, and they work well together. So the total O&M budget, um, is going to be 6.6 million $300,000 increase with a 4.89% increase. It is a little bit higher than
076last year, but it's besides the contractual side. It's pretty hard with the supplies and the equipment side to really bring it down to much lower. Um, we are doing another where we're proposing another, uh, transfer to capital. So what we did, what we've been doing with the last three, this will be the third one that we're doing this with. It's running in conjunction with the $32 million capital project. We're doing all of the classroom floors through this funding. So we basically took several funding sources and put them together to be able to complete the building. So by 2028, we should have all of our classroom floors done. Um, I'll give you guys a brief update on capital projects. We have a lot. I'm sure everybody's aware. We have a lot going on right now. Even
077while we're in the middle of school, we still have a lot going on. We have contractors in our buildings pretty much every night, still working right now, and we're in this building. So this was phase one. Phase one was the Hillcrest and High School roof and the Hillcrest parking lot. Uh, the roofs that you're looking at, that's the top left is the high school. Uh, the the whole left side is actually the high school. We chose a different route with this. I don't know if everybody remembers, but we went with an epoxy roof. And what was nice about it, instead of doing a full rip, which is very intrusive, we also went from a 20 year. By doing this. We added we paid a little bit extra and we went to a 30 year warranty
078by using this product. And uh, it saved us $1 million roughly. So and now, you know, and that million dollars is needed as we're seeing escalation for phase to, um, to a and to be. So it really helped out a lot. Um, everybody's favorite share is my favorite Hillcrest parking lot. Finally got rid of our dirt pile in the corner. And we also during that site work we also did the playground area. The playground area was done through a grant, but we also rehabbed, uh, the blacktop around the back. We recoded everything came out really nice. Yeah, the wall was redone. Yes, it looks great. Um, this is the admin project. This is to a what you see on the left. Is the pool completely infilled? We're seeing some Hvac going now. Where you see
079on the right is what we are. That's the rendering. And that's what we will have come June. Um, we're going to start really progressing quickly with this project now. We had a meeting today, um, looking for a two week look ahead. We should really start moving well in with this project. Over the next 3 to 4 weeks, we'll see walls going up. We're going to infill the pool though. That's actually plywood what you see in that picture. So they'll be doing the poor and everything over the next week. Some of the steelwork is coming in and one of the items that was delayed, but we had some issues with some of our abatement. So the windows are coming in June anyway. So at the end of the day, we'll still be on target for a
080spring finish. And to be is these are just the renderings to be is um, was on the street. We have um, well, you have agreed to accepting the bids for three of the primes. We currently have the plumbing bid back out on the street right now for opening, I believe, on the 17th. And this work starts on June 1st. Um, we worked out a lot of logistics with the high school team, with cabinet, with Doctor Bedi and Doctor Mauricio, really about how we can get into this bill and especially the high school as early as possible so that we can get. And when you're doing an entire athletic wing, it's a lot of work to take on in just one summer. So the way we were able to do it by getting in on June
0811st, we'll have everything ready in that area by November 1st. So it works out really well for us. And this is a two year project overall because this is district wide. It's not just the high school, so we're going to be in the high school throughout this entire year. We worked out the logistics again. So the main entrance is being done. That's a small addition that we're doing that's going to give us a secure vestibule at the high school. So this is going to be an awesome project. And I appreciate everyone understanding of construction during school. And it's very difficult. But we all understand what we're getting at the end. And I think that's important. And the energy Performance contract. Energy performance contract is moving along very nicely. Um, a little bit of snow definitely
082put a damper on installing solar panels, so you can see the actual panels in place. That was at the high school. They were moving along really quickly until we got that first 18in of snow. Um, they have all the tracking up at Hillcrest. Um, we were able there's a brand new boiler plant at the high school now. Uh, we have three, 3.5 million BTU, um, condensing boilers, all new pumps and, um, pressure tanks. System has been up and running this entire winter with no issues. So. And it's very efficient. We should see some savings from that. I'll probably be able to see this. Well, it'll be difficult to compare from last year because we didn't have three weeks of single digits last year. But we'll be able to see over the few years the data
083just to justify it. Um, the solar, like I mentioned earlier, we're hoping to have, um, Hillcrest up and running by early fall. And the high school also, the high school's got a little bit more work with a new transformer, and we have to work with Conrad for that change over so that one will be a little bit more difficult. But we should see both systems up and running by the start of next year. School this school year. That's all I got. Any questions? Um, Carmen, I think you sell yourself short. You need to have the before and after pictures. I'm not good at that. Doctor Mauricio tells me that all the time. Oh, my goodness. Because it would be night and day. Well, I, I have to ask Laura for those pictures. She's good at
084that. We've saved them all for the final presentation. Cut ribbons. We're going to show them before. And. [INAUDIBLE] now understand the camera personnel. Yeah. That's it. I probably have them all. I take pictures nonstop, but I got to get better at organizing them because I keep being told that my clouds fall, so I gotta get better at it. Well, no. Um. Um, you know, you, uh, as a board, I know one thing that we always wanted was, uh, solar. Right? And so, um, being able to add solar to our, some of our schools is obviously going to help us as a district budget wise, Cynthia. And, um, but I just think it's, um, it was definitely the next step that we needed to kind of go into. So we appreciate that. And the little things
085as far as the Flores and so forth, is, is going to add to our, our school, because obviously we know some of those floors haven't been changed since the, uh, uh, the building was right there. Some of them are 50, 60 years old. So yeah. Yeah. And and I mean, kudos to your, uh, staff being able to do a lot of those, um, projects because we know how expensive it can get. Um, but I again, when we get a chance to see what Hillcrest parking lot look like to what it is now, it's going to just be fun to see. But, uh, that's all I wanted to say, but thank you. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. But first, as a Hillcrest parent, thank you so much for that new parking lot. It's
086been a long time coming. Things make a difference. Um, a couple of questions. Just, uh, one for my understanding. And then, you know, just long term planning. So the first is when you say that, um, some of the schools are have their floors redone. What do you mean? Is that, like, ripping them up? Yeah. We'll do a full replacement. So a lot of our floors right now, our VCT. So we're going to live in our classrooms. So you see in the newer high school classrooms. We've done 1 or 2 mock ups at Hillcrest and the um at Woodside. So those are the floors that we'll be replacing. Plus, for us, as a very busy district in the summer, it's very difficult for us to turn over a classroom where we're stripping and waxing. So by
087going to the live floors, we don't have to do that anymore going forward. So it's much more efficient. And it's the same warranty, which is nice. Fantastic. Thank you. What's that? Uh, yeah. You can. It's a glue down and you could heat it up. Pull it right out. Um, we've had the floors at Oak Side in Woodside Cafeteria now for 4 to 5 years, and we've been able to replace whatever, whatever's damaged. So it's worked out really well. It's similar to the carpet tiles like you see here. Yeah. Nice. Um, and then understand that we have solar at the high school and it's going on. Hillcrest is correct. Is there a plan to put solar on all the school buildings? It's difficult at the other buildings because of the roofs. We'd have to do a
088lot of work to the roofs to get there. So one of the things we looked at solar a while back, but the way we planned it to go on the high school in Hillcrest was based on our roof warranty. You never want to put solar on top of an older roof, so they'll they'll sell it to you if your roof's got five years left on the warranty. I just I'm not comfortable with that. So we plan that to go with this EPC that we ran them together once we had our two larger roofs that were ePDM already that we could put to solar Run. So we're coming up. You know, we have to look at planning down the road because we will have to redo some of our roofs and we may want to go
089in that direction. Yes. I would like to see more solar on our buildings. Great. Thank you. Okay. Um, I actually don't really have a question as when I say thank you for being so thorough. Now you're planning. In your knowledge, we're so lucky as a board. And I also talk to other board members. And, um, it's just so easy for us to go back to the community about things like budget or capital projects because of your knowledge base, because you've been willing to take the time to explain it to anyone who has questions about materials or about budget or about planning. So, uh, I still don't know how you have the knowledge you have of like, state law and materials and building and how you have such an amazing staff. But I feel that we're
090very lucky. Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate. I mean, of course we want to thank you. You've done a great job with the snow removal, keeping our buildings, to be honest. All I do is wake up to guys. All of that work. Me and doctor, I'm just talking in the morning and they do it. It's been tough. Those last this last storm was was really tough for them. Well of course spread the word of our thankfulness across the board. Um, but I wanted to speak specifically to the forward thinking of having internal people for plumbing, for the trades in general. Um, making sure that as our mechanic, ones and twos and whoever else start to age out of the system and move towards their retirement, that we continue because a lot of the people in
091your department are kind of lifers. They they give themselves to Peekskill. And I'm really thankful to all of them that do that. That really allows us to plan. It allows you to get to know them as people. It allows a lot of great things. Um, and if we're going to continue down that road, which I hope we do, um, investing in them as they want to learn the trade, you know, if you want to move from a custodian to a mechanic position and you want to become the next plumber and making sure that we support and get that, that planning in place to help you move into that position as somebody retires, I think would be, uh, essential. I'm sure you guys are doing those and having those conversations. Some guys have asked in the
092past, we've had a couple of guys go to Boces for stuff. Um, a lot of it's internal training. Some of the stuff is a little harder when it comes to electrical or plumbing. Um, but, you know, we can we, we try to make sure that our laborers and our mechanics work with our mechanic tos so that they can learn the trades as they go also. So yeah, it works out. I think it just builds the district's, um, system for even pasture retirement as every member of the board, if we continue it on, it puts us in a place to continue to be the district where they're fixing the bathrooms for cheaper than you can do it at home. And they're, you know, involved in all these projects and stuff, and we're able to keep the
093buildings looking beautiful. And that's an afterthought for a lot of districts. Um, and it's become kind of a selling point for us lately because of the work that you guys are doing. Like, you came up with those floor, um, inside Woodside and and Hillcrest. When you walk in, they've got the logos and the floor and stuff. I don't know if that's necessarily what a lot of people think of when they're thinking of just replacing some floors. And I think they look amazing and they're able to give those buildings identity, and the kids get excited about seeing them. I mean, when my younger ones come to Woodside for performances, they dance around the little Wildcat, even though we're trying to get them into the auditorium. And they're just I'm on the cat. So, um, they look
094amazing. And you guys are thinking about those little details, and I know you and I joke all the time about them picking the wrong colors when they built these buildings. Like, why are we going with a green middle school? And our colors are red and blue, like, it's just little details. And I'm really thankful for you having an eye to that stuff. So thank you. Thank you I appreciate it. So all your staff for that. They do, uh, appreciate, uh, all the work, the foresight and so excited to open the lower level here in the, uh, spring, late spring, June, late, uh, June. And so we'll certainly be going down there and all the other projects as well. And the solar will be online, and then our students will have access to, uh, a website
095where they can see when it's cloudy out, what the solar energy is, how much we're giving back to the grid, and all the cost savings related. Yes, everything. It's a cloud based, uh, software that will. I work with uni so that we can make sure that it's easy access for everyone. But, yeah, that'll be done as soon as the solar's up and running. We'll be moving with that. Yes. And just from my end, I want to thank everybody. I mean, I don't get to do all of this fun stuff without you guys supporting with out the community, with cabinet. You know, I've worked here for a long time. I've worked here for the first four years of my career here. We didn't do any of this work. It was very stagnant. So, you know, it's
096you guys that help us be able to do this work and get this stuff done for our kids. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Trustees, I just want to also recognize one of its staff, uh, joined us. Uh, Jessica Rondon, one of our staff that help our families and our staff. So thank you for being here. Thank you for all you do. And the board gave you, uh, and your team kudos. So wanted to recognize you. And that concludes our superintendents reports. Thanks. So now we'll move on to the hearing of the citizens. Are there any citizens wishing to be heard? Well, if not, everyone's welcome. We're always open to hear from anybody in the community. So if you'd like to come to a meeting, we're here every other Tuesday. Um, and
097now we'll move on to the accepting of minutes. Any questions or comments? Uh, may I please have a motion to accept the minutes for business meeting? January 27th, 2026 Bowie Retreat February 4th, 2026 and the Business Meeting work Session February 10th, 2026. Moved by Frank. Second. Second by Allen. All in favor? Hi. Any. Any abstentions? Okay. May I please have a motion to include the termination resolution and the lease agreement discussed during executive session to the consent agenda. So moved by Brennan. Second. Second by Angel. All in favor? By any means. Any abstention. Consent agenda. Any comments? Questions. Thoughts? No. I did have one question about Doctor Morris CEO's data that I shared. Can I ask that now? Sure. Thank you. Um, just curious if particularly for the bullying harassment incidents, does that include online,
098which I know is a bit of a gray area because it's not in school but relates. Yeah. Uh, great question. We actually separate. Um, I put them together for the purposes of this presentation. Um, but cyber bullying, uh, has its own category, and it's essentially any kind of, uh, bullying, intimidation, harassment, using technology. And then it's classified as cyber bullying. So we do track that as well. Yes. Yes. Uh, we can certainly share, um, the data. What I would say is that the kind of data that I did share as kids get older, we do see, uh, more of that. Um, uh, as students are getting into, you know, conflict and trying to address that in very different ways. Um, not as much as your I and Woodside, um, and things of that nature, but,
099um, it tends to be at the older level. And that has been my experience, um, in education as well. Okay. There's no other questions on the presentations. Uh. Consent agenda. Uh, can I have a motion? Motion to approve consent agenda items eight a through eight. Okay. Did I get a motion to. You got a motion. Okay. Okay. So moved by Brant. Second by Allen. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstentions? Does anyone have any, um, feedback or comments or anything else they want to share? No. If there's no further action, may I please have a motion to adjourn to executive session? To exact session. Yes, sir. Oh my angel. Second by Alan. All in favor, I mean. Any abstentions? Good night everyone.